7 Quick Takes about New Cars, Beach Camping, and Stupid Injuries You Give Yourself

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

—1—

I went for a walk and saw this cute sight:

So this is what having all your ducks in a row looks like.

—2—

Our two oldest kids have their drivers' licenses now, but we've put off buying a third car for years. I didn't want to deal with the expense and the maintenance and figuring out where to park it. Plus, after embracing minimalism I really have a hard time bringing more stuff into the house, and a car is a big piece of stuff.

But Phillip and I were having to sit down and make one of those evidence boards from CSI every day to figure out how to get all the people in our family everywhere they needed to go, sometimes the kids were late to work because the car simply could not be in multiple places at once, and I was starting to feel like a bus driver on crack pretty much all of the time.

So we found a used car from a private seller, and went for it. The day before the purchase, I went to withdraw the money from the bank, and it was really unnerving to be holding that much cash at one time. I left the bank with a giant envelope, muttering "Don't be like Uncle Billy, don't be like Uncle Billy!" the whole way home.

—3—

The new car is now Phillip's car for driving to and from work, and the old commuter car is now for the teenagers to drive. 

It's possibly a little insulting that my 42-year-old husband's upgrade car was bought from some rich 25-year-old kid getting rid of his starter vehicle so he could go buy a Tesla (really, that's what he told us), but we're not proud. 

In fact, we're thrilled at what a good deal it was; he even took our lowball offer "if we could come get it this week" because he just wanted to be done with it.

—4—

Over Labor Day weekend, we went camping with some friends from church. We usually go camping once a summer as a family, but we've always gone camping in the forest. The last few years we've even gone deeper into the woods, staying at the "remote sites" where you have to carry in your own water and you don't see or hear another soul.

This campground was right next to the ocean, and it was a lot different. The campsite, instead of being a secluded nature retreat nestled in the forest, was like a sprawling tent city with people everywhere and lots of noise. I think my 7-year-old expressed it best when we were setting up the tent and he said, "It feels wrong to be camping in public..."

 A few scrubby trees were growing here and there, but they were pine trees so we couldn't even find marshmallow roasting sticks anywhere.

The kids playing with glow sticks after dark made a nice picture.

It was cool being so close to the ocean, we could just walk to the beach from our tent. But I think I prefer woods camping, hands down.

—5—

You know when you leave a store without buying anything and you feel like you're shoplifting even though you're not? Well, I felt sort of like that this week, when I bought a Nutribullet blender on Facebook Marketplace. 

We arranged to meet in a Wendy's parking lot. We arrived within 30 seconds of each other, quickly exchanged cash for a folded-over brown paper bag, and then we both got in our cars and drove away. I know there was nothing shady going on, but come on. We couldn't have made that look more shady if we'd tried.

—6—

I have a very big, very dumb bruise on my arm. 

Circled on the left because the lighting of this picture makes it a little hard to see.

I got this bruise while I was unloading an armful of boxes from the backseat of the van. Trying to be efficient, I was planning to press the automatic door button and pull the boxes out while it was sliding shut. But I was too slow, and once I had the boxes in my hands the doors had already shut far enough that there wasn't room to get them out of the van.

Rather than drop the boxes and possibly break what was inside, I thought, "I'll just stand here and wait it out. The door has a sensor that makes it open back up when it feels resistance." Okay, yeah it does, but it pushes on you hard first.

So not only do I have no one but myself to blame for the door closing, but I also stood there and made a conscious decision to let it smash me even after I pushed the button. 

—7—

It's been a ridiculously hot week, but I wanted to get going on our mailbox landscaping project and that meant getting plants and putting them in the ground. And I wanted to do it now, while all the plants at our local nursery are on sale. 

My favorite plants. These are so cute.

Planting and mulching took way longer and was hotter and more difficult than I'd imagined, but I'm so happy with the way it looks!

I also planted grass behind the hill where it's just bare dirt. The last thing I need to do now is replace our wonky faded plastic mailbox with a nice metal one, and it will be all finished!

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